The awesome co-hosts for the May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and  Pat Garcia!

May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

Wait, there are writers who fear success? I fear failure, but success is the dream! I suppose I do fear friends and family reading my books and talking to me about them, so maybe that counts as fear of success. I don't mind strangers picking up my book, but with people I know, I feel the need to warn them off or apologize. 

I fear that any new idea or inspiration might have already been done. I hate it when I get an idea, run with it, and then discover an existing book that is eerily similar. I fear being accused of plagiarism! It's like that old adage: there is nothing new under the sun.

Most of all, I fear that no matter how skilled I become, I won't be able to find readers for my work. Self promotion feels impossible, not to mention expensive! My kids are getting older, so I'll be going back to work soon. My writing time will run out, and if I haven't built a reader base, that will be it for me. This feels like a depressing way to end the post, but then, it's a downer of a topic to begin with. I look forward to seeing everyone else's answers, so I won't feel so alone in my fears!